Struble, I. S.

STRUBLE

Posted By: Linda Ziemann (email)
Date: 8/30/2005 at 21:55:07

Printed in the LeMars Sentinel newspaper
Dated March 27, 1902

PEOPLE IN LE MARS
Some Incidents and Facts About the Old Timers In and Around LeMars

Hon. I. S. Struble, the senior member of the law firm of Struble &
Struble, bears the distinction of being the oldest established law
practitioner in LeMars. "It will be thirty years next month," said Mr.
Struble in conversation with a Sentinel representative the other day,
"since I arrived in LeMars and hung out my shingle as a lawyer. It was
the twenty-fifth day of April, 1872. I studied law with Hon. J.D.
Campbell at Polo, Ill., and was admitted to the bar at Oregon, Ill., in
1870."

Mr. Struble served during the war in the Twenty-second Iowa infantry.
The Twenty-second had a great reputation as fighters and were with Grant
at Vicksburg and with General Banks in the Gulf department and then with
Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. He enlisted in 1862 and was mustered
out at the close of the war. In response to a query as to whether he
had university education, Mr. Struble replied, "Well, I attended the
Iowa State University for a year, and wished I could have attended it
longer. After the war I was south in St. Louis. You know I was born in
Virginia near Fredericksburg and my father and mother lived on one of
the farms which formerly belonged to the Washington estate. There was
and is yet I suppose a log cabin on the place which was built in
Washington's day. They moved from there to Ohio and were early settlers
in Iowa."

"I went to school in Ohio and Iowa. After being admitted to the bar, I
came west to grow up with the country. My brother, J. H. Struble and
myself opened up a law office on Main street in the frame building which
now serves as headquarters for the Salvation army. The building was
then located where Will Laux's grocery store now stands and was owned by
George Walton, one of the early residents, who now lives at Ida Grove.
There were not very many houses in LeMars in those days about fifty I
should guess. There were three or four lawyers practicing here when my
brother and I first came here. H. C. Curtis and his partner, F.H.
Clarke, had their office in a little 10x12 shack where Peters &
Wiltgen's store is now. George Argo and A. H. Lawrence also had law
offices. A. H. Lawrence did not do very much in the courts but attended
to real estate and other matters. When I first came to LeMars the
district court held its sessions down at Melbourne. Then LeMars became
the county seat and the old building on the corner of Main and Seventh
streets was used for meetings and gatherings of all kinds, political
conventions, religious services ...[appears to be at least one line
missing..continuing on the next page]
Judge Addison Oliver was holding court, the father of the present Judge
John Oliver, of this district. We young lawyers used to like Oliver on
the bench. Wm. Young and Charlie Corkery who were booming Young &
Corkery's addition for town site in those days built a building down
there which was used as a courthouse for two or three years, I think,
when the present courthouse was erected. I remember singing a duet with
Dr. Hilbert at a concert given in the old town hall in those early days.
We were singing out of the same book and Dr. insisted that I wouldn't
hold the book, so he could see and snatched it away from me, a feat
which highly pleased the audience who considered it a great joke. Along
in 1879 or 1880 the Van Sickle hall, now Washington hall, was built and
we had ample rooms for town meetings and conventions and the like. For
many years my office was in the Hentges block, when the firm was
Struble, Rishel and Sartori. I guess Jos. Sartori did better than any
of us. I understand he struck it rich out in California and Rishel is
out there too. Later the firm was Struble, Rishel & Hart."

And concluded Mr. Struble, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, and a
glance at his son, posing over law books at an adjoining desk, "I guess
you know the name of the present firm."